


Let Me In

by sweet_rabbit



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, Obsessive Behavior, One-Sided Attraction, because i enjoy designing them for my favorite characters :), i need family love, keith and thace kind of bonding?, lance in dresses, lotor is super creepy that is cannon, more lance and thace, technically a No Shame November fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 10:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8621671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweet_rabbit/pseuds/sweet_rabbit
Summary: Lance positively glowed as he made his way across the ballroom, Keith discretely leaving his side. All eyes were on the young man in the blue jeweled mask who greeted every guest in passing with such ease you would think he was raised in this life style. Nobody spared the half breed any notice, too busy trying to gain the attention of this pretty and charming new thing to care where his date had disappeared to.It was exactly to plan, leaving Keith to make his way deeper into the mansion in hopes of gaining information on the Galra's next battle strategies, or at the very least, details regarding the inner workings of their military.If only he could focus on his work and shake off the feeling that perhaps maybe there were a pair of eyes closely regarding the Blue Paladin that they should be very concerned about.





	

If asked, Keith wouldn’t be able to say exactly how much time had passed since going into space to find out he was a Paladin of Voltron. Sure there was a good estimate of roughly two and half years, but that was something Pidge had come up with, along with a counting mechanism to give the Earthlings some peace of mind. So that made Keith in this specific point in time around twenty years old. However, if you were to much more wisely ask Pidge, or even Hunk, they would probably go into a huge lecture regarding time dilation in the theory of relativity. Keith had a vague knowledge of the subject, but it was never something he particularly cared about since he didn’t see himself spending long periods of time in space two and a half years ago.

Things change, obviously.

He found himself curious about the aging process, specifically, and how by Pidge’s clock he knew he was technically twenty years old at the time, Lance still being nineteen until two “months” later, yet that could arguably be just mentally. Aside from gaining muscle thanks to training, none of the humans noticed much change in their physical age. Pidge was the only one of them focused on their height, and though she had only grown about one inch during all that time, she was still the youngest and could therefore have a late growth spurt. With other more pressing matters at hand nobody cared too much about it since it didn't really cause any problems. So long as they could do their job it was fine. Besides, Keith was more concerned with… his pituitary gland, to be frank. Because really, if he was twenty then he was an adult and adults should not be wallowing in love over their teammate whom they really shouldn’t be having a relationship with considering how dangerous their line of work was.

“Worried about the mission?” Shiro asked, startling Keith out of his thoughts.

“What? No, no of course not,” Keith said. He turned back towards the three mirrors to get another look at himself for adjustments, or to at least appear to be doing so in front of Shiro.

With a sigh Keith reminded himself that out of all of the humans on this ship, he himself was the only one who had really changed in two years.

If he was being honest, and he most of the time was, Keith was still startled to see his reflection. Again, going by the clock it had been six or so months since he was accidentally doused in quintessence during a mission and changed to a nearly full Galra, but most shockingly about that was how quick everybody was to support him and reassure their bond. It wasn’t easy, nobody expected it to be, but during the slow crawl of time Keith had grown comfortable with the fact of what he was. The look was still going to take time. When you know what your appearance was for over ninety percent of your life, seeing a purple creature with yellow eyes and pointy ears higher than what they were supposed to be was still a shock in the middle of the night during a bathroom run.

Though today what made him even more confused by the image in the mirror was the fact of how clean and official looking he was. Allura had busted out the Ceremonial Paladin Uniforms on their first formal event celebrating a liberated planet, and they had only had to wear them a handful of times since. While Keith was technically wearing his red issued one, it had some modifications added, such as a darker shade of red, closer to burgundy purple, along with different ornaments that meant nothing to him but apparently meant a lot to the event he was supposed to attend in less than an hour. So long as nobody touched the fake metals then it didn't matter. In addition to being in such an impressive attire, his hair had been styled by Shiro to be gelled and pulled away from his face. His bangs were combed slightly to the side with some strands hanging a bit loose, and the rest of his hair pulled back in a tie. It took longer than expected what with the new ears to work around that Shiro wasn’t used to, but they managed and Keith did find he looked, well, handsome.

He had to push away the hope that a certain someone who would be joining him for the evening would agree with this.

“What’s with the deep thinking, then?” Shiro again interrupted. From the mirror Keith could see Shiro’s reflection smirking at him in three different angles.

“You look really sure of yourself so why don’t you tell me?” Keith huffed, turning to face him, taking the ornate red mask being offered to him to complete his look for the night. “I’m just going back over the details, I need to be prepared since I’m not as used to this as Lance is.”

“You’ll be fine. You’ve technically done this before just in less public venues on the fly, and you don’t need to be the life of the party like Lance aims to be. Unless you want Hunk to take over your spot instead? We still have time and he is quite charismatic when he wants to be.”

“Yeah, no, sorry Shiro,” Hunk spoke up as he entered the room. “I have not had nearly enough mental preparation to willingly put myself in a social position with the enemy, not happening tonight. Besides, these communicators were specifically modified to fit Keith’s and Lance’s ears, not mine, and it’s way too late in the game to try to change them without them looking like crap. I’m not ruining my fine craftsmanship anytime soon, thank you!”

“It’s fine, I’m just teasing!”

“Well stop it,” Keith grumbled. “And I’m not worried, just cautious! I don’t know what you guys think I’m going to do, Allura made it perfectly clear I’m to keep talking on my end to a minimum. Good to know she has so much faith in me.”

“You’re just better at other stuff, man,” Hunk said. “Same with Lance! He may not be able to swing a sword around as good as you but he could definitely talk somebody into doing it for him… not naming names.”

“Is there something more important you needed to do or is it not-so-subtly harass Keith when he's about to head out on an important and potentially dangerous mission time?”

Shiro had the decently to turn away to hide his laugh, while Hunk lifted his hands up in surrender. “Alright, sorry, it’s just cute! But yeah, like I said, got the communicators modified for you, ready to go.” As Hunk walked over to Keith, he could swear there was giggling from outside the door. Noticing this as he snapped the now earring looking device onto Keith’s right ear, the yellow paladin followed his gaze to the door. “I got Lance’s clipped on and set up, too, along with the minor cloaking for his hair and ears. It’s crazy what Pidge can cook up, he seriously looks like he’s got Altean in him!”

“Then kindly announce me already so he can see!” the man in question demanded from the hallway, followed by more laughing and shushing.

“Yes your royal impatient-ness!” Hunk took a step back and motioned for Shiro and Keith to stand in direct view of the door before clearing his throat and taking a straight backed position of attention. “Presenting his royal freshness… that classy, Cuban Count of Cool… that beauty with the hips you need to fire ‘cause they just won’t quit… my main bro and yo’ boi… Lance ‘Azul’ Ramirez III!”  

To the applause of Hunk and Shiro, with laughter heard from further behind the door, Lance came literally twirling in taking Keith’s breath away. He tended to do that when going all out on these undercover missions, taking full advantage of the less defined gender roles in space, as well as the many more options for designs. However, this one in particular he could tell Lance went into special care and time on. The top portion of his gown hugged his upper body in blue shimmering lace with a sweetheart neckline. A jacket with similar material feathered out along his shoulders and up his neck, defining its length and his broad upper body as opposed to trying to hide it. Added to it was a revealing cut out hole at the top of his chest where a blue gem hung. It all hugged his small waist before flowing out into a cloud like material that practically floated around his hips, turning sheer the lower it went. Beneath the rest of the dress was a second layer of pure white that kept close to his long legs with a slit up the front middle where Keith could see he had opted for a pair of high heels, giving his legs even more length. Overall, with the slightly pointed hologram ears and white hair along with the jeweled blue mask adorned over his eyes, he really did look the part of a noble with Altean blood. Keith couldn’t keep the small smile from his face at the sight of him.

“You like?” Lance nearly purred, clearly aware of the effect he was having on Keith. However, once Lance’s full attention was on him, Keith couldn’t help but notice and take pride of his blue eyes widening as he took in Keith’s own attire. The blush high on his cheeks only fueled Keith's excitement.

“Yeah,” Keith mumbled, schooling his features back to serious. “You’ll definitely be a good distraction for me tonight.”

Lance put his hands on his hips and gave Keith a glare while pouting. “Well I _was_ going to compliment you on finally looking like you give a crap about your hygiene and presentation, but I think I’ll reconsider that and instead say thank you, SHIRO, for making Keith look like an acceptable part of space society.”

“Uh, no problem,” Shiro said. “But let’s all just agree that you both look very nice, and then go back to the fact that this is, in fact, a mission?”

“That’s what I was doing!” Keith protested.

“Let’s not go down the ‘who started it’ path, shall we?” Allura said as she walked in behind Lance, Coran hurrying in to fluff at Lance’s gown a bit in some last minute touches. “Shiro is right. At the end of the day the main point of all of this glitz is to collect information and hopefully gain an upper hand on Zarkon’s next plans. It’s sheer luck that we stumbled across this event and I refuse to let it go to waste due to petty squabbling. Am I clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Keith and Lance chorused. The two shared a look as Allura turned to Hunk to quickly discuss the communication frequencies, conveying their admitted amusement of being scolded for picking at each other. It had been a long time since they had truly had an actual argument, it was closer to teasing now. But they knew Allura was just fixated on the mission at hand and wanted everyone to stay focused.

She wasn’t exaggerating on their luck of finding out about the event the two of them were infiltrating that night. Only about an Earth week ago they had liberated another planet after a long and drawn out battle with the Galra. It was especially difficult due to their importance to the empire when it came to trade, though the planet’s resistance had thankfully always been a strong one. When Allura had been finalizing the treaty and pact with their King, it had come up how a high Commander had just a few of their planet's cycles ago invited him to a Masquerade of all things, celebrating his numerous victories and conquests. The King had laughed about how he was admittedly sad he and his Queen could no longer attend since the food and drink was supposed to be top quality, but in the long run a missed party was a small loss for this planet and people's freedom.

“The party is being held at this Commander’s home,” Allura had told them later, displaying the two invitations the royals had given her. “Or at least one of them. It seems he had many on different planets throughout the Galra’s territory, though we’re in luck that this one is in a few galaxies away. A quick and easy worm hole jump and we can possibly get ourselves in to enact a little… undercover reconnaissance?”

The last part had been directed at Lance who let out a positively giddy shout of excitement. It was later on when they got more details on exactly how large and exclusive the gala was going to be that a second Paladin was decided to join, going behind the scenes to break into the file systems to gain official battle plans if possible, while Lance talked his way into the heart of the party to tease and trick details of ranks and positions from the guests.

Pidge had been the first choice, given she could get into the servers much faster than anybody, but was quickly shot down when Keith pointed out that since it was a primarily Galra held party it might be best that somebody who looked the part be the one to sneak away given that he would get the least amount of attention drawn to him. Pidge agreed and said so long as Keith inputted one of her USB chips in, she could handle the hacking from the ship while he went through any possible paper trails laying around.

“Are we sure about Keith going? Couldn’t I take the mice instead?” Keith remembered Lance teasing. “I already have the perfect plan for it, too! Get me a big towering wig of hair and hide them in there, with cute little bow ties for added effect.  Easy peezy, lemon squeezy!”

Unsurprising to anybody, his idea was shot down with the explanation that the back-up of a fellow paladin in such a heavily armed and militarized event was wise. Even if it was a party and commanders in attendance were off their guard, it didn’t make the situation any less tricky. Keith and Lance needed to be on full alert, something Lance was used to with his past spy missions while Keith didn’t need to be told twice.

“Can you guys hear me?” Pidge spoke in Keith’s ear, bringing him back to the present. “Testing, testing, one two, one two threeeeeeeeee-”

“Yes, Pidge, we hear you,” Keith cut in. “Or I hear you. Lance?”

“Yeah, you’re good on my end, too. And no painful shocks, either, so thanks for that!”

“Good,” Pidge answered. “Sorry I can’t see you two off, I’m sure you look great. Keith made sure to get you a corsage, right Lance?”

“No, can you believe that guy?!”

“What?! Keith, what have you been doing this whole time?”

“Hunk, please inform Pidge that we’re on a schedule,” Keith groaned. He had been listening to this all “week” and was close to his breaking point.

Holding back a chuckle, Hunk clicked something on Lance’s right ear before saying, “Okay, Pidge, we’ve had our fun. Super serious mission time is starting, we can grill them on the details during After Prom.”

“After Prom?”

“He’s joking,” Shiro said. “But is right about that first part. We need to get the ship to our base location so you two can get started. We have a hover bike ready, but, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this, drive slow, Keith, so you don’t ruin you and Lance’s outfits and hair.”

“Also so you don’t get caught!” Coran added. “Would be a waste if what does you two in is breaking a few speeding laws.”

“I got it,” Keith said, while starting to make his way into the hall indicating he was ready to leave. From his peripheral vision he noticed Coran flicking out a large fur looking white coat seemingly out of nowhere and draping it across Lance’s shoulders to the blue paladin’s delight. Keith couldn’t help but smile at his “date’s” excitement as he rubbed his cheeks against the soft material, happy despite the circumstances.

-

They could see the building the event was being held in from over the trees. Though "building" was just a general term, it looked more like a castle than any sort of mansion they had seen yet. With the added information that this was one of many houses of the host, Keith couldn't help but give Lance a disbelieving look that was quickly returned. It was an impressive sight, with towers spiraling into the clouds and ornate lighting that illuminated the night sky, reflecting off of the snow. In particular there was a balcony impressively high considering they were able to see it from their distance. It looked to be place above the entryway, overseeing all of the arriving guest with lights and icicles falling over it, twinkling gently in the night. They could hear muffled chatter and perhaps even music, but with the snow covering the ground, the atmosphere was still almost eerily quiet and still.

That is until Keith had to grab at Lance’s arm to keep him from scooping up a ball of snow from the ground.

“But I have gloves on!” Lance protested, scowling and almost burying into the fur of his coat.

“We’re on a mission, Mr. Expert,” Keith nearly growled. “I thought you were a pro at this and I was supposed to be making stupid mistakes?”

“It’s not stupid, and I was just curious about it. I’ve actually never seen snow before, so you know… wanted to touch it.”

Keith sighed, releasing his grip on Lance’s arm and instead offering his elbow to get a more formal impression of the two of them started. “You’re the guardian of water and by default snow and you’ve never even seen it? How have we not been to a snow planet yet?”

“Don't know,” Lance answered as he gently placed his hand in the crook of Keith’s arm. “Earth wise I grew up on a beach and then the Garrison was in the desert. But you know, I’ve never been to a ball before but look at me now! All dressed up and on the arm of a proud and handsome military alien man.” Lance gave Keith’s arm a squeeze when he placed his other hand atop the one already in place, nearly giggling at his joke while Keith’s own cheeks darkened a shade or two at the compliment.

“Yeah, I mean… we are piloting giant robot space lions, so if that isn’t an indicator to the unpredictability of life I don’t know what is.”  

This time Lance really did laugh, his cheek falling onto one of Keith’s ears thanks to his heels adding to his height. Keith allowed the warmth in his chest for just a moment before shifting his features to neutral and clearing his throat. The mission was straight forward, just as Coran said. He knew not to complicate things.

And Lance knew this, too.

Keith could tell by the wistful sigh he felt more than heard him let out, and his arm being pulled closer to Lance’s side.

“Hey, Keith?” he breathed out.

Keith hummed in response, looking ahead at the trees as they disappeared to reveal the nearly glowing mansion under the three moons.

“You think… you think that you might be able to find time to share a dance with me?”

Other people were starting to appear the closer they got.

“Lance, you know I don’t know how to dance,” was what Keith forced out.

Keith dug into his coat pocket for the invitations to give to the attendant a the door.

“Right, I do know that.”

The grip on Keith’s arms loosened as Lance straightened his posture.

“But, you know,” Keith whispered as they made their way up the steps, “since we are here as a couple it would be weird not to dance together, no matter how bad I am at it.”

After handing the invitations off to the doorman, Keith shared a smile with his date who looked like he was holding back a whoop of victory at Keith’s words. As they were ushered into the warmth of the foyer he heard the doorman say what was probably his mandatory greeting given how bored he sounded.

“Welcome to His High Commander Lotor’s Masquerade Ball. We hope that everything is to your liking.”

**Author's Note:**

> Mmmm hear that creaking? Yeah, that would be my rusty fingers. Not used to writing in a long while and even less so something that isn't a comedy, but it's good to challenge oneself and I have an unhealthy need for Lotor to be in VLD like freakin' yesterday.


End file.
